The Disillusioned Maverick

Sunday, June 19, 2016

I
still remember the first time I met her. It was a hot April Sunday afternoon.
We had bonded momentarily over the works of Satyajit Ray. There was nothing extraordinary about her.
Just another culturally inclined Bengali woman.

It’s
hard for me to remember when exactly I developed feelings for her. But I
believe it began almost a year and a half after we first met. On a despondent,
rainy Sunday afternoon. I was being
driven mad by the tedious monotony of existence. And she came like a storm. No
complexities, no intricacies. And she blew all the sewage away from my mind. Something
extraordinary about her. She made everything seem effortlessly simple.

I
remember the first time I heard her sing. It was a lazy, indifferent Sunday
afternoon. I have heard a million songs in my life, but never before have I
been filled instantly with an overwhelming flood of emotions. After that day, her songs were treats I fervently
anticipated. Like you wait for the next part of your favourite story when the
last part has ended in a cliff-hanger. Something
extraordinary about her. It’s like the King of Ghosts from the aforementioned
Mr. Ray’s films has gifted her the voice of an angel.

I
remember our first day of courtship. It was a fading Monday evening. The world
was rushing me by and then she appeared and just like that, as if by some
powerful magic spell, the whole world froze. I don’t remember the conversation
we had. I just remember feeling that I was finally home. I couldn’t take my
eyes off her, as if afraid that if I did so, she would disappear and I would
wake up. Something extraordinary about her. She could stop time and make a hopeless man dream.

In
this journey of life, we often take each other for granted. We often forget the
moments of magic. It would help, if on some idle, commonplace Sunday afternoon,
we could recall those beautiful moments that make life worth living. It would
help if we could remember the moments we fell in love. Because, as some great
men once sang, all you need is love, love is all you need.

Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Foreword:Read this quickly.No telling when the censor guys come around and censor the sense out of this little ol' post.

So the entire internet community is in an uproar over Kapil
Sibal’s attempt to censor material on certain sites on the internet.And can you
blame them?The internet is supposed to be free.No not THAT free-that’s illegal
and called piracy,shame on you if you indulge in it.By free I mean the freedom
of speech-the freedom to call someone a douche bag sitting in your dark
basement room trying to sound badass and dissing movies on message boards.Yes I know you also
use the internet to search for erotica-shame on you again.Point is the internet
allows you freedom real life doesn’t.So naturally censoring the internet WILL
cause an uproar.People will be angry.But from experience and history we know
that people are as often right as they are wrong.So let’s analyze this a bit.

Does the internet need a guardian?That’s the first
question.I would say yes it does.We all know of cyber frauds,cyber crimes,etc.So
yes it does need a guardian.Next question-does content on the internet need to
be censored?Suprising though it may seem,the answer is YES IT DOES.The most
obvious question which arises next is why?Well for many reasons-For
example,suppose someone uploads a formula for making bombs,suppose some
fundamentalist is spreading his warped twisted theories and brainwashing young
people.There can be various other reasons but I think we have established the
fact that yes often content on the internet needs to be censored.For the
greater good (Winks).

Now comes the question-is the Indian government right in
censoring material on the internet?My first reaction is that it depends-if he’s
going to censor what some teenager writes on Facebook then it’s absolutely
pointless.Yeah many people may abuse politicians on the internet but it’s not
causing them any harm is it?Cricketers and filmstars have been getting this
hatred for ages-the fanboys of two rival superstars in India are always at
loggerheads and abusing the holy hell out of each other.So this basically seems
kinda pointless if not downright petty and fascist.However if this censorship
is used to censor some bank robber somewhere from planning a bank robbery with
his fellow robbers on Facebook or something like that then I guess it’s
useful.The last line sounds mindblowingly stupid no?That’s because it is.

In the end I would have to say I don’t know if Mr Sibal has
any hidden agendas or motives (he’s a clever man no doubt) behind this,but I’d
have to say up front this sounds a really bad idea-one which has expectedly not
found close to as much love among the internet community as Kolaveri Di.

Saturday, October 01, 2011

So the festive season is here.People all around are dee-lighted and basking in the festive atmosphere(I have no idea what that means).Except me.And NO,I am not an atheist,I don’t have anything against idol-worship or the Goddess.I dislike a lot of things about the Pujas pertaining to the mortals who celebrate it.Here's some of them:

1.Overcrowded streets-The streets,roads,alleys,by-lanes are all overcrowded,and all you can see around you is an ocean of human heads.Someone’s elbow hits you on the back,you try to turn and bump your head against someone,someone treads on your foot,you try to jump and accidentally hit an old guy behind you and everyone around stares at you like you’re the worst human being in the world.How is THAT any fun?

2.The walking-It may be just me,but some evil psychotic friends of mine love walking during the pujas.Mile after mile after mile.Maybe they derive some kind of sick masochistic pleasure from this because I simply don’t get what’s the fun in walking for hours in the scorching heat or the rain,tiring yourself out and ruining the new clothes you’ve just broken out.

3-Overpriced/Low quality food-I don’t know what is it during the pujas,but it seems the price of food increases and the quantity/quality decreases during Pujas.If you want to get into a barely average restaurant you have to wait for 3 hours outside to get that overpriced food.I am sorry but this is fun-HOW?Am I missing something?

4-Noise pollution-Yes,noise pollution.The puja pandals all playing the latest Hindi chartbusters in full volume.Somehow I really don’t think the Goddess really wants to hear that during the Pujas.However it could be just me,and maybe everyone really enjoys the trashy Bollywood songs played during the Pujas.

5-The theme pandals-This is what annoys me the most perhaps.The pujas have now become gimmicks,gimmicks to win various awards.Whatever happened to the good old sabeki pandals,where there won’t be 40000 people at a time and where you can sit and chat with your friends/family? The homely feeling associated with those times just isn’t present in these theme pujos.It feels like a mockery.

Did I mention the food?Oh yes...I did.Sorry...well that’s that then.So basically these are the stuff about the Pujas which bother me.things I don't like.But to all those who do,have a blast!Enjoy yourselves.

Friday, April 08, 2011

I woke up today morning,got the newspaper and a full page advert of the Indian Premier League jumped out at me.The front page converted to a full page advert.This was the case with both the newspapers I read.Same thing happened when I open the TV.Regarding this I have some points for not just the print media but the entire Indian media.

I am not a politically inclined person.I keep track of the political happenings of the country but I am not much interested in politics.However as living in this country you can’t help knowing some things like India winning the cricket World Cup or an Aamir Khan movie is releasing,Similarly you can’t help knowing about certain things-Like the IPL scam,the Adarsh society scam.Like the 2G scam.Like all the other scams.So I happen to know as any ordinary Indian would that there is something wrong.There is corruption in this country.Now that we have established the fact that corruption does exist,We come to our next point-Anna Hazare.I happened to hear that a man called Anna Hazare has started a fast-unto-death protest against corruption.I came to know from a Facebook note even more about this man and this bill he is proposing.And even to a non-political person like me it seemed to be a very important news story.Much much more important than the Indian Premier League-which is no doubt a showcase event for the country but in all fairness that’s what the sports pages at the end are for.So I want to make certain points.

1)What made you think that the IPL’s advert is more important than not alone the Anna Hazare story but than any other story happening in the country.Can you explain?

2)There has been a tendency to highlight even the most trivial issues related to showbiz and cricket.Like how a certain model promises to bare all if the team wins the cricket world cup.Like how a starlet experienced a wardrobe malfunction,like how an Indian cricketer may get married,like how a certain actor is experiencing bad luck due to the stars.WHY ARE YOU SELLING NEWS AND NOT REPORTING IT?

3)I notice certain news channels-in fact almost all-try to portray certain political parties in a good light.All the while either taking potshots at the other party if not directly blaming them for so and so incident.Why is that?WHY ARE YOU ACTING LIKE SPIN DOCTORS?

You may think that since the TRPs keep coming the so the viewers must really like it,but you have no idea.Certain late night news channel anchors have become a mockery on certain social networking sites.Certain regional language news channels are the butt of jokes.That’s what you guys are turning yourselves into.A circus.Of course there are exceptions but they are far and few.If people watch news now that’s because it amuses them.The same way they love watching TV soaps and Reality shows.Speaking of which some of you actually have programmes to analyze the happenings of the teleserials and bring people the latest inside scoop.You are putting the idiot in the idiot box have no illusions about that.Maybe it’s high time you should stop worrying about earning TRPs and sponsorship money and started worrying about earning respect.